MADRID, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Spain suffered a 4.1 percent rise in crime rates in 2018, with worrying increases in rape, drug trafficking and internet fraud according to a report published by the Spanish Home Office on Thursday.
The report showed 2,131,424 criminal offences were committed in Spain in 2018, compared with 2,045,784 in 2017.
A total of 13,811 of the offences committed in 2018 were those against sexual freedom or integrity, up 18.1 percent over 2017. Among them, 1,702 were rapes, 22.7 percent higher than in the previous year.
There were also 14,125 cases of drug trafficking, which is 9 percent higher than in 2017, while 107,012 burglaries and 43,566 robberies were reported, up 1.8 percent and 0.6 percent from 2017.
Internet fraud was up 46.8 percent as more and more people shop online.
The increase in these offences contrasts with a 5.9 percent fall in the number of homicides to 289 for the year.
The year 2018 also saw 36,152 car thefts, down 15 percent, and a 1.8 percent drop in the number of robberies committed using violence to 60,677.
In terms of regions, there was an 11.6 percent rise in the crime rate in the Catalan Region of northeast Spain, a 9.9 percent increase in Navarra in northern Spain and a 7.7 rise in the Basque Region, also in the north.
The southern region of Andalusia, however, saw a 0.3 percent drop in crimes, while there was a 0.9 percent fall in criminal activity in the Canary Islands.
